Yesterday before walking into the Orem, Utah library (to visit an aunt who works there) I called my parents. They asked me rather urgently if I could pick up a book for them: “Stories From the Life of Porter Rockwell” by John W. Rockwell and Jerry Borrowman.

I always thought Porter Rockwell was cool and interesting, but didn’t give their request too much thought. I checked, the book was already out on loan and four other patrons were in line to get it next. So I asked for a reservation for my father and he became the fifth in that queue.

I guess my parents couldn’t wait because this afternoon when I walked into their house, they had a copy of the book already and had been reading it.

My mother then told me that I was a descendant of a man named David Norton, Jr. – “he is your fourth great grandfather” – and that with that fact in mind, I should read the book’s Afterword.

The first paragraph of this Afterword, written by Jerry Borrowman reads:

David Norton Jr., my great-great-great-grandfather, was an associate of Porter Rockwell’s from the earliest days of the Church. In fact, they both played a key role in the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor: Porter kicked the door in, and David set the printing equipment on fire. They acted under orders of Mayor Joseph Smith, never suspecting that this act would ultimately lead to Joseph Smith’s martyrdom.

Almost my entire life I have known about the destruction of the Expositor and over the years, from time to time, I have heard and read many mentions of this event, as well as arguments in regards to what it meant and how excusable or inexcusable it was. But until today I never had any inkling that someone in my family lines had such direct involvement in what happened that day.

[Based on my mother’s records, this line traces back through my mother Sherlene Hall, her mother Ida Rose Langford, her mother Zina Charlotte Chlarson, her mother Ida Isabelle Norton, her father Hyrum Fletcher Norton and then his father David Norton, Jr.]

It was copyrighted 1982, and someone gave me a copy shortly after I was baptized.

It was written by faithful believing Mormons, but many of the bios contain “warts and all” parts. So I think it helped a bit in “innoculating” me against the surprise imperfections of past leaders or prominent members.

I’ve been surprised at some of the connections in my family ancestry and some aspects of church history. However, nothing quite like destroying the Nauvoo Expositor, or being a Danite, though. How, exactly, does one “sport” a rascal beater, J? Is that like concealed carry?

Porter Rockwell is pretty interesting. According to my family history, he shot two of the sons of Alexander McCray (an ancestor of mine who was in Liberty Jail with the prophet and who served as a bishop in Salt Lake for a couple of decades). According to the story, the two young men were accused of stealing a mule (apparently part of a dispute with a neighbor), and Porter Rockwell and another officer chased them up Emigration Canyon, shot them both, and dumped their bodies in the McCray’s front yard.

My wife and I were doing some family history research. Turns out each of us had ancestors that served in the Mormon Battalion. What we discovered, however, is that our two ancestors that served in the Battalion (each with different last names) were cousins! Making my wife and I fifth cousins.

Fortunately our kids have turned out to be intelligent and by all outward appearances, normal even though they are each others sixth cousins…

Correction, my wife and I are sixth cousins (we share a set of g-g-g-g-g-grandparents but not a set of g-g-g-g-grandparents), making my kids each others’ seventh cousins (if you trace them independently up 2 separate lines.

When my wife and I applied for a marriage license they asked if we were related within 6 degrees of consanguinity. As we are not I have no idea what they would have done if we had answered, “Yes!” Probably taken us out back and beat us with a pipe.

Bookslinger, I felt separated from the Expositor event before I learned about this family connection – now it means a little more to me. Not because it has to – I just happen to care a lot about being a Mormon and feel a bit attached to my ancestors.

One of my gggggggggg-grandfathers (don’t know exactly how many back he was), who was a pretty important man in his day, had an affair with his deceased son’s widow, which resulted in a couple of children. He was a widower, so I guess the sin was fornication, but technically not adultery, since they were both not married. Story here: http://bit.ly/dz5UZq